Schooling or Working?

A copy and paste of my post in SearchSG Forums.
The link for the thread is here.



wyred @ Aug 26 2004, 10:09 AM
I’ve been working for almost a year now. My advice would be to enjoy your school days while you still can! wink.gif

For now, I miss my student years very much. cry.gif
But I also enjoy working life too~ I can shop without worrying too much. I can eat more food than I used to. lol
autumnqiu @ Aug 26 2004, 02:32 PM
Actually, how is working life actually like? As compared to school life?

It depends actually. If you have a bad boss, work in something you have no interest in, of course you will have an unenjoyable working life. But just to share, here’s my case and let me begin from my school life.

Back then, it was all sleep, eat, sleep, go home. Or go out with friends, study in school, sleep some more at the comfortable sofa in the air-conditioned library. Haha. Cos I’m rather nocturnal so I have difficulties trying to sleep at night. It was fun, studying with friends. Of course, you can chat once in a while, but you need to set a target for yourself each time there’s a study group so you won’t end up chatting all the way. I had more time back then. Can play games more often, go out more often too. sadder.gif

Some of my fondest memories of school life are during the periods before exams. Everyone helping one another, studying in school at our own pace.

Now working 5 days a week. Can’t find anything bad about working life. Perhaps not enough time to spend on Final Fantasy XI would be one! I enjoy what I do at work. Web developing with PHP and stuff. Have a good boss, a good office location which is 1 hour direct bus ride from home. Oh yes, my butt aches from the bus rides would be another bad thing. moody.gif But the pretty office ladies I see on the bus and during lunch are rather comforting. bigsmile.gif

Every Friday, I make it a point to eat out and go shopping. Hee. End of the month, after I get my pay, I always visit Kinokuniya at Orchard to get the next issue of Newtype USA and some new mangas, then have dinner at Burger King, and read some manga whilst sipping coffee. I seldom have the chance to go out with friends cos most of them enlisted (I didn’t need to enlist cos I’m PR). Only on some Fridays/Saturdays, we could go out for supper. Since I’m from a poor family, my life has improved since I started working. I’ve put on a bit of weight and I could indulge myself more into Japanese culture (namely anime!).

To conclude, both has it’s pros and cons, but you have to go through both of them anyways. Since I miss my student days and there is no way to turn back time, I would advise all of you students to cherish it while you still can. It’s only once in your lifetime wor.

Go ahead and break some rules if you will (but do it without troubling someone else!). For me, during my poly days, I dyed my short hair bright yellow and stayed away from the barber for a year! lol. Even though I look terrible, and despite some warnings from lecturers, I wanted to experience how it feels to have long hair. At least up to shoulder length.

When you start working, you will probably get more busy depending on your field. Even though you don’t have to worry about exams anymore, you have to worry about your performance at work. But hey, you get paid a nice sum at the end of each month. Usually more than enough to go on a sushi-eating rampage~

Another off topic advice: When you get your first pay, you may or may not notice that all things around you feel so much cheaper. This is where you have to practice self-control. Or else you would end up buying lots of stuff like I did. X(

Lastly, thanks for reading this damn long post~ T_T

My Adventure Begins

Added this new section of blog entries. It’s to blog the adventures of my other self in a fantasy world called Vana’Diel. The recent FFXI story I posted has been moved to this section, and it will be the first entry, for my FFXI blog. It is what inspired me to give more attention to adventuring than levelling. But still, without getting stronger, I cannot explore new areas without risk getting killed by them evil goblins.


This is Wyred, a level 24 Warrior aspiring to be a Dark Knight. I pledge allegiance to Windurst, home of the fucking cute Tarutarus [XD]. You should see them when they dance.


Inspired by the story in the first FFXI entry of my blog, I set out to search for the stone monuments as mentioned. The first one was relatively close to my starting point. To begin with, I accepted the quest from the Mayor of Selbina to search Vana’Diel for various stone monuments which contains text left behind by an certain adventurer, Gwinheim Ironheart.


As I made my way across the sandy beaches of Valkurm Dunes, headed to my first location, a level 10 Tarutaru Black Mage approached me for help. He asked if I could escort him to San D’oria, home of the Elvaans. Since we happen to be travelling on the same path, I agreed to help.


My destination was West Ronfaure. To get there, we had to travel through La Theine Plateau. La Theine is littered with aggressive goblins and orcs which the little one could not possibly handle by himself. But it is also a beautiful countryside with trees.


As we set foot on West Ronfaure, we parted. The insects and monsters here are easy enough and seldom aggressive. He was headed to King Ranperre’s Tomb. And I’m to search around the forest for a stone monument. It was covered by walls that used to be part of a building. Trees and plants have already grown everywhere. I used the clay given to me by the Mayor to make a copy of the message on the monument…


    “It’s been 10 years since I last stepped on this land. The Orcs who have been dwelling far up north have started to show some signs of activity, and that worries me a lot. This kingdom’s very fabric of livelihood and pride lies in this forest. But the Elvaans are a race that are very proud of their own culture and treat the others as crude lower-class barbarians. They think the power of the Orcs is too insignificant and is no match against their chivalry. But, let this old man prophesize, that one day in the near future, tens of thousands… no… hundreds of thousands of Orc soldiers will invade the forest and take over this lush and beautiful environment. Though it is wishful thinking on my part, I hope someone who is kind enough to take time to read my plea on this engraving, would take heed of my warning.”


C.E. 761
Gwinheim Ironheart


Final Fantasy XI

I had plans to collect quest items with a friend so I did not proceed to help the Mayor visit the remaining monuments. But this quest, will be accomplished slowly, one step at a time.

Mozilla FireFox

Though it is just another web browser, it is by far better than Microsoft’s. I’m using FireFox as my default browser now on 3 of my systems. I still maintain IE6 on my system just for WindowsUpdates and blogging. I’ll summarise my observations from using both browsers, listing their advantages and disadvantages.


I’ll start off with Internet Explorer. Been using this since the day I went online. During this period I tried other browsers but they often take too much time to load. Currently, my blog uses HTMLArea. A piece of javascript that gives me a WYSIWYG interface for writing my blog entries. It works fine when I use IE6 but disappears when using FireFox. Either I analyze my code or find an alternative, I have no time for both so I’ll have to employ IE6 to do my task for now. Here’s a screenshot of how I prefer my IE6 interface configured and the WYSIWYG editor.


Internet Explorer 6.0

FireFox starts up as fast as my IE6. Best thing about FireFox is tabbed browsing, popup blocking, and blocking images(ads) from certain domains by just right clicking. Tabbed browsing is certainly a much neater, easier way of browsing websites without cluttering your taskbar. When browsing a website with a lot of interesting links I want to check, I simply right click and open it in a new tab.


Mozilla FireFox 0.9

I noticed that while the page is loading in FireFox, links that pop up new windows when clicked on will not work. I have to wait till the page finishes loading. I guess this is how FireFox currently works in blocking popups by blocking any window from opening while the page is still loading. The next improvement of IE6 in WinXP SP2, from what I understand, allows popups that are initiated by the user. Haven’t tried to confirm this yet.


Note that I’m comparing the pre-SP2 version of IE6 and FireFox 0.9.

Navigating around elusive emotions

While re-designing this site in PHP, I made a few changes and one of them is the paging links at the bottom. From my traffic logs, there’s a number of visitors who are used to the old system whereby latest entries are shown on Page 1 and older entries get pushed behind.


I abandoned this system because this means all pages of content keeps changing. Gives inaccurate results for those who came in here via search engines. Therefore, I made it more like a book, reversing the system where newer entries are displayed first from top to bottom for each page. And as each page gets filled, a new page will be created.


I also added permlinks (permanent links) so everyone including me can pass around the link to the exact entry. When I feel like it, I might allow users to customise whether they want to see Tech-only entries, Life-only entries or both~

A Final Fantasy XI Story

A very touching FFXI story for everyone. Nothing much to blog these days for I’m rather pissed at some people who can’t put up a good argument or carry out a discussion in forums. Some people just start considering it a flaming session when there’s no abusives or anything hurled. Just someone writing a counter statement to another person’s words. Perhaps my perception of “flaming” in forums are wrong?


Anyways, enjoy the story. I’m hosting the flash on my own, the text inside is Japanese, the following translation provided by someone else. I made a few edits to make it easier to understand what’s going on for those who don’t play this wonderful game. At the end of the flash, with my meagre understanding of Japanese, I assumed it was not a true story. Nevertheless, it’s still a good story.


Flash: Meeting Again – nice BGM and screenshots from the game.


Notes:
LinkShell – A communication system. Whoever has the LinkPearl to this LinkShell can send messages to everyone else on the LinkShell.
Jobs/Subjobs – Classes. You can choose/switch between Warrior, White Mage, Dark Knight, Summoner, Thief and some more. Each job gives you a special set of skills. You can assign a second job as a supplement to your main job, giving you access to skills on your subjob. To unlock subjobs, players have to reach level 18 and acquire 3 quest items.
Chat Colors – /tell is the command to message another person. /ls for messaging everyone in the LinkShell. Both are differentiated by colors, /tell in purple, /ls in green. The color mentioned in the flash is red, so I’ll leave it as it is.


Story was originally written in Japanese. All credits given to the person who wrote this and Jomachine of Sylph who translated it.

————————————————————
First time came to Valkurm Dunes, I saw a Taru White Mage among the group of strangers.
I was a Warrior, at that time I didn’t even know what SkillChain was.
Competition for Subjob quest items was very intense, and it was common that the Ghouls at Dunes were claimed immediately once they had spawned.
Every night, we searched for the items endlessly. Without knowing too much, we had a static party settled down.
Warrior, Warrior, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage.
And finally, we had gathered complete subjob items for everyone.
Already with each other for so long, we decided to level all our subjobs together.

First time went to Jeuno, twice we had all died on the road.
I still remember clearly the sound of our cheers when we got to Jeuno after all the obstacles we went through.
In order to celebrate the moment, we sold everything we had for some money to buy a LinkShell.
The leader was assigned to the Taru White Mage who lost on the /random dice.

We had such a good time…
Hoping it could always stay that way, never changed…

But. When did this start to change? Maybe it’s when the Taru White Mage learned the Teleport magic.
Gradually, everyone drifted away.
Taru White Mage was the reason.
Always quiet and calm, she started to avoid daily repetitive, killing, mad levelling partying.
To those members who wanted to get strong, powerful, high-level faster, she began to have troubles to get along with them.
The level difference was too wide.
One day, she suddenly told us her decision….
“I am so sorry. I have no use to everyone anymore. Please find another White Mage….”
Actually before she even made her announcement, our members already started to fall apart.
Secretly competing with each other by outlevelling, again and again.
Now as I recall, I still don’t understand why I was so desperate to level.
Maybe, it’s because of the burning desire to attain greater power, I think.
Two people left the LinkShell, and later on I joined another LinkShell.

……

At last, I maxed my warrior in levels. It was still quite some time before the release of Rise of Zilart expansion.
Having completed my initial goal, I started leveling THF(Thief job) in order to make more money.
As soon as the Rise of Zilart has released, my THF already reached lvl 58.
Thinking to explore the new zones and considering THF had the ability to flee from dangerous situations, I decided to go as THF.

Coming back to hometown Bastok, went through the Korroloka Tunnel, I arrived at Altepa Desert.
No map. No direction. I had no idea what to expect.
I just wondered around and see what would happen.
Suddenly, I saw the Telepoint-Altepa.
At the same time, there is something next to it.

Yes, it’s the long forgotten Taru White Mage.
She was in complete AF (Artifact Armor), sitting there alone quietly.
Next to her name, is a very familiar LinkShell color.
Not possible…. there are too many LinkShells with similar colors.
But somehow, my intuition told me it’s the one we had long ago.
She saw me, and smiled.
Then, used /tell and said…..

“Haven’t seen you in a long time. You look good ^^”

Maybe she found the awkwardness in the air, she did a /cry emote.

“I was so sorry that time, I wished I could apologize to everyone. One day, if we meet again. But I need to tell you something. “

Bathing in the purple light from Telepoint-Crystal, she started to tell her story slowly.
What happen after that. What she was thinking that time.

She, was an “adventurer” to the land of Vana’Diel, she said.
Of course, same thing to me, I thought.
But the way she understood about adventure seemed to be different than mine.

“It was really fun when we were at Dunes. In a world we had no sense of where to go, we found our path together.”
“But ever since we came to Jeuno, we were doing samething over and over again everyday. We didn’t have any spare time.”
“After I learned the Teleport magic, I always thought we could go someplace interesting as one. But everyone was only into levelling……”

“I, I just want to hang around in this world. I know, maybe at somewhere, there must be a great scenery I have yet to see. If we could all share that moment, would be so wonderful. At least, that’s what I thought.”
“Remember the first time we saw the rainbow at LaTheine Plateau? I still remembered how excited we were, never forgot. I wished we could all did this once again, just like the old times…”


At this point, I am shocked…

Indeed, first time we went to Jeuno, it was very exciting. But after that, everytime I saw new zones, did I still have the same feeling?
Even if I arrived at a new place, it’s just another hunting place to me.
Those Momument Stones detailed the story of each zone, to me, is just another cumbersome obstacle to obtain map of the Crawler’s Nest.
Since when, I have lost the enthusiasm to adventure?

The original LinkShell we created, BLM (Black Mage) was the one who insisted he would stay until the end.
But now, she is the only one left, alone by herself.
Even though, she said she still wanted to keep it equipped.

“Because, this is a special LinkShell”
“Although there were many invites to other LS, but I politely rejected them all. One day if someone comes back, I can say ‘Okaeri’ (Welcome home) to him.”


I felt ashamed. Until now, I never even thought of her once, already forgot about her in memory. Not to mention other members. I even dropped the Link Pearl long ago.

“Walking around in this world by myself. Everytime I saw something new, I always typed in what I discovered in LS chat, even though it ended up talking to myself only. w” (w means “warau” Japanese version of lol “laugh out loud”)

“I discovered many many stories. Like the history of Davoi, Magic Towers at Beaucedine Glacier and Sarutabaruta……”
The Taru White Mage kept talking to me the stories that perhaps no one would even pay attention to until now.
In the chat window, red texts of her /tells started to fill up slowly.
At the sametime, I felt envious of her.
Her expression was so real and whole-hearted.
I already lost the sense of adventure, but she still kept it in her heart.

Nervously, I asked her.
If it’s alright, could you once again, give me a Link Pearl? I asked.
Next time if you travel around, please take me with you.
I know it is a very shameful, selfish request.

She smiled, and request to Trade.

It’s a pearl with the most memorable color. I equipped it right away.
In the chat window, a green line of text slowly flowed in.

“Okaerinasai. And welcome to the adventure world of Vana’Diel”

I’m a sucker for these kind of stories. [X(]